The Marshall County Board of Zoning Appeals put a variance for a local farmer to expand his CFO into a CAFO on hold during their regular monthly meeting.
Caleb Coffel came before the board to seek a variance of the county zoning ordinance reducing a setback from a residence from 1300 feet to 500 feet to construct two more barns to expand his business of raising chickens for the market.
The expansion would change the classification of the operation from a CFO (confined feeding operation of at least 30,000) to a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation of 125,000 or more). The additional two barns for the operation would put one of them within 500 feet of the next structure.
Coffel told the board that he had already met the requirements for the State of Indiana and he was awaiting state approval of the expansion if he could obtain the variance.
He told the board that his retention pond was 203 percent above the state requirements, he already had odor apparatus in place in his current barns, he met manure disposal requirements, and the chickens were considered “free range” since they were not in cages but had the run of the barn.
He added that one of the requirements from the state was well testing twice a year to be sure there was no groundwater contamination and that he was IDEM-approved. He told the board that the venting of the barns was to the east, where the nearest neighbor was two miles away.
The county technical review committee recommended that the variance be approved.
Several parties spoke in favor of the ordinance as well as against it.
Keith Fraine, Town Manager for Bremen, told the board that there were concerns from the Town Council. The city had planned a development with 250 homes in the close vicinity of Coffel’s farm.
Joseph Stoller, the farmer who owns the structure immediately to the south that was the focus of the need for a shorter setback, came before the board to oppose the variance. His concerns were having a CAFO on property that is part of the flood plain. He also told the board that before Coffel’s CFO, he never had a problem with flies and says now they are numerous. He also felt the extra truck traffic would damage roads in the area that had just been repaired.
While the board was sympathetic to Coffel’s project, they felt that the neighbor complaints demanded a denial. They gave Coffel the option of withdrawing his request giving him a chance to reapply if the neighbor’s concerns could be met. A denial of the request would not allow Coffel to reapply for one year.
Coffel withdrew his request to attempt to address the concerns.
